What it's like to be an assistant to a royal family
Brian Daniel talks about what it's like to be a top-notch personal assistant to the Saudi Royal Family. Watch the program below ↓ and see videos of Brian on location with the royals HERE.
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AUDIO TRANSCRIPT
This is Cliff and Gabby's catch up. We do just throw it out there. We want to have a really interesting conversation and a very specific conversation today being we want to talk to someone who is personal assistant or has been an assistant to the rich and famous. And we've got one who will actually talk. His name is Brian Daniel, and he joins us right now. How are you?
I'm great. Thanks for having me.
Brian, we are so interested to hear your story. So, you've actually worked as a PA to the Saudi Royal family, is that correct?
That is correct.
Wow. Tell us a little bit about that.
So, for years and years in Los Angeles, I have been working with high-net-worth families and celebrities as a personal assistant and estate manager. And then this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity came right in front of me. And I had the opportunity to work for the Royal Saudi family.
And essentially what I was told is you're going to be working 12 hours a day, seven days a week. You're going to be on private jets. You're going to be in a new country every week. Is this something you're interested in doing? And at the time, I wasn't married; so, I said, yes, let's do it.
That's amazing.
That's what life can be like for working for the rich and famous, but particularly for royalty, is that you can experience things that most people will never get to see in their life. But the work is also grueling and quite punishing at times, right?
That is correct. So, you have to have an incredible amount of resilience. So, what I'm doing right now because I stepped away from being in the spotlight, so to speak. And I'm now a headhunter for other personal assistants who want to get connected with Royal families and VIPs.
And one of the things I have to do when I'm going through the interview process is qualify them to make sure they have that thick skin and resilience that's needed to be able to survive a job like that.
Totally. So in surviving a job like that, what are some of the out of this world crazy things that you were asked to do?
So, for example, just one of many. I was in Las Vegas with the VIP, and we were driving by this famous hamburger restaurant called "In and Out Burger". And so, we pulled up and that was his favorite meal. And the store was closed. They had just locked the door.
So, I started banging on the door and got the manager to come over and he said, I'm sorry, we're closed. I cannot open the door. And I reached into my pocket and pulled out a huge, gigantic wad of cash. And I said, we are prepared to pay you to open the store. And everyone can have overtime and we want to come in for an extra hour and eat.
So, I had to pay him about $10,000 because part of it is hush money too so I had to pay him about $10,000 to keep the store open and make hamburgers for our whole entourage. There was about 20 of us and four different exotic cars.
Okay, so, Brian, you mentioned hush money there. I'd imagine that would come into play doing your role a little bit because like we said, the hours and the work you're expected to do is punishing but also some of the stuff you would see and experience (like flying on private jets), the media could get hold of that and completely correct. Is the remuneration really good to essentially keep you on site?
Exactly. So, what they're doing now anywhere in the world if you're working for a high-net-worth family or a Royal family, you have to sign an NDA: non-disclosure agreement. That is standard operating procedure. Just last week I had a celebrity billionaire in Silicon Valley contact me his HR people and he's looking for an estate manager and before they would even disclose to me what they were looking for and give me a job description, I had to sign an NDA so basically everything you see, everything you hear has to go with you to the grave. Wow.
Well, you would have so many stories to tell. I know you've signed NDAs. Do you think that you might be able to write a book one day?
Brian, I did write a book about the personal assistant industry. I included as many things in it as I could. That book is available on my website. Findcelebrityjobs.com. I'm giving away free PDF copies. Copies of my book?
Yeah. Learn more about Brian and the work he does at Findcelebrityjobs.com. That's his website. Brian Daniel, big love. Thank you for your time.
It's my pleasure. Thank you so much for having me.
BACK TO PRESS PAGE>>
This is Cliff and Gabby's catch up. We do just throw it out there. We want to have a really interesting conversation and a very specific conversation today being we want to talk to someone who is personal assistant or has been an assistant to the rich and famous. And we've got one who will actually talk. His name is Brian Daniel, and he joins us right now. How are you?
I'm great. Thanks for having me.
Brian, we are so interested to hear your story. So, you've actually worked as a PA to the Saudi Royal family, is that correct?
That is correct.
Wow. Tell us a little bit about that.
So, for years and years in Los Angeles, I have been working with high-net-worth families and celebrities as a personal assistant and estate manager. And then this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity came right in front of me. And I had the opportunity to work for the Royal Saudi family.
And essentially what I was told is you're going to be working 12 hours a day, seven days a week. You're going to be on private jets. You're going to be in a new country every week. Is this something you're interested in doing? And at the time, I wasn't married; so, I said, yes, let's do it.
That's amazing.
That's what life can be like for working for the rich and famous, but particularly for royalty, is that you can experience things that most people will never get to see in their life. But the work is also grueling and quite punishing at times, right?
That is correct. So, you have to have an incredible amount of resilience. So, what I'm doing right now because I stepped away from being in the spotlight, so to speak. And I'm now a headhunter for other personal assistants who want to get connected with Royal families and VIPs.
And one of the things I have to do when I'm going through the interview process is qualify them to make sure they have that thick skin and resilience that's needed to be able to survive a job like that.
Totally. So in surviving a job like that, what are some of the out of this world crazy things that you were asked to do?
So, for example, just one of many. I was in Las Vegas with the VIP, and we were driving by this famous hamburger restaurant called "In and Out Burger". And so, we pulled up and that was his favorite meal. And the store was closed. They had just locked the door.
So, I started banging on the door and got the manager to come over and he said, I'm sorry, we're closed. I cannot open the door. And I reached into my pocket and pulled out a huge, gigantic wad of cash. And I said, we are prepared to pay you to open the store. And everyone can have overtime and we want to come in for an extra hour and eat.
So, I had to pay him about $10,000 because part of it is hush money too so I had to pay him about $10,000 to keep the store open and make hamburgers for our whole entourage. There was about 20 of us and four different exotic cars.
Okay, so, Brian, you mentioned hush money there. I'd imagine that would come into play doing your role a little bit because like we said, the hours and the work you're expected to do is punishing but also some of the stuff you would see and experience (like flying on private jets), the media could get hold of that and completely correct. Is the remuneration really good to essentially keep you on site?
Exactly. So, what they're doing now anywhere in the world if you're working for a high-net-worth family or a Royal family, you have to sign an NDA: non-disclosure agreement. That is standard operating procedure. Just last week I had a celebrity billionaire in Silicon Valley contact me his HR people and he's looking for an estate manager and before they would even disclose to me what they were looking for and give me a job description, I had to sign an NDA so basically everything you see, everything you hear has to go with you to the grave. Wow.
Well, you would have so many stories to tell. I know you've signed NDAs. Do you think that you might be able to write a book one day?
Brian, I did write a book about the personal assistant industry. I included as many things in it as I could. That book is available on my website. Findcelebrityjobs.com. I'm giving away free PDF copies. Copies of my book?
Yeah. Learn more about Brian and the work he does at Findcelebrityjobs.com. That's his website. Brian Daniel, big love. Thank you for your time.
It's my pleasure. Thank you so much for having me.
BACK TO PRESS PAGE>>